In the UK, on average, 50 people a day are forcibly removed from their homes and deported. In Cardiff, snatch squads leave from the UK Border Agency on 31-33 Newport Road in order to smash in peoples’ doors and drag them out of bed.

On Monday morning, UK Border Agency ‘Officers’ were at work early, busy at an address on Newport Road. The UKBA used dark blue anonymous unmarked vans, with blacked Read the rest of this entry »

Titi Nzamba Bolele, and her three children spent nearly three weeks in Yarl’s Wood detention Centre after a UK Border Agency snatch squad conducted a dawn raid on their home in Adamsdown and unsuccessfully attempted to deport them to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – universally accepted as a war zone.

“Security forces deliberately killed or summarily executed more than 500 persons in Kinshasa and Bas Congo and arbitrarily arrested and detained about a thousand more, many of whom were tortured or ill-treated.”

On Thursday 29th January 2009, around 25 people braved the freezing cold conditions to hold a picket for about 2 hours outside the UK Border Agency at 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff. These offices are where decisions are made about who gets detained, deported or in rarer cases granted leave to remain. ID cards are issued here for non-EU students and spouses and immigration ‘snatch squads’ operate from this address. This is also the local reporting office, where asylum applicants must ‘sign on’ as part of the conditions of their continued residence in the UK and then sometimes are detained prior to deportation. It is the face of Britain’s racist immigration policies right here on our doorstep.

Whilst holding our regular pickets we witness asylum applicants attending to ‘sign on’, their papers being inspected before they are granted admittance. Any accompanying friend or family members made to wait outside while they go in. We often also see Read the rest of this entry »

On Wednesday 10th December the registration of non-EEA students and spouses for ID cards will begin in Cardiff. At 12 noon No Borders South Wales will be holding a protest outside the UK Border Agency at 31-33 Newport Road (map) where this registration will happen. We invite all opponents of ID cards to join us.

A hardy collection of waterproofed campaigners from No Borders South Wales picketed the government’s ‘UK Border Agency’ on Newport Road in Cardiff. This unassuming grey building is the heart of the UK’s immigration policy in South Wales, but it’s boring bureaucratic façade hides a truly barbaric regime.

This is the place where snatch squads leave at dawn in order to smash in peoples’ doors and drag them out of bed before dumping them in one of our squalid detention prisons. Innocent people, those who have committed no crime other than wanting to make a better life for themselves or flee opppression are forced to sign on here every week as part of their duty to this dehumanising system.

We do a regular picket outside this building for a number of reasons:

We want to alert the public to what goes on here and make sure they know about the snatch squads

We want to show asylum seekers some solidarity, tell them about what we do, and let them know not everybody in the UK is driven by the racist agenda of the right-wing press

And we want to let the Home Office know that there’s opposition to their police-state politics, and that we won’t let their ‘business as usual’ carry on without some serious opposition

If you can join us we’ll be there, rain or shine, every second week for one hour at noon. Bring your sandwiches and a justified hatred of the way asylum seekers are being treated in our names. Keep an eye on the blog for updates.

The next regular No Borders picket of the Home Office’s ‘UK Borders Agency’ in Cardiff will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 9th July at 12 noon at General Buildings, 31-33 Newport Road (map).

These are the offices where people made the decision to deport Kemi Ayinde, Ama Sumani, and so many others, where the snatch squads leave from, where local asylum seekers have to sign and treated like criminals. Take a break from work/study/sitting in the park to join us and demonstrate your solidarity with migrants and show that we won’t tolerate the brutal practises that take place inside the building!

We’ve had two impressive victories in the last week, but we need to keep fighting. We need to let them know we’re still here, and that we’ll always be here while this racist and repressive migration regime remains.

Cardiff and Bristol No Borders activists successfully blockaded the Cardiff offices of the Border & Immigration Agency on April 24th. From 5am they prevented snatch squads from leaving the building, and held a picket outside.

The demonstration was part of a nationwide day of action to protest against repressive immigration policies and to ensure that, for one day at least, families in South Wales were safe regardless of where they come from

It has been discovered that ‘snatch squads’ who carry out dawn raids on asylum seeker families operate out of the ‘Border & Immigration Agency’, General Buildings, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff. As part of the fight against unjust & racist migration controls worldwide, activists from No Borders Wales have conducted early morning monitoring of immigration staff at General Buildings & have witnessed ‘snatch squads’ leaving the building on a number of occasions at around 6am in the morning. Activists who have followed the ‘snatch squads’ have been Read the rest of this entry »

No Borders South Wales have now held four pickets at the Cardiff offices of the ‘Border and Immigration Agency’, General Buildings, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff (click here for map).

As well as being the location where individuals who are seeking asylum are required to sign in at regularly while their claim is being processed, it has been discovered that Immigration “snatch squads” operate from this building, where immigration officers and police raid the homes of failed asylum seekers (including children) at dawn to arrest and detain them.